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Rafael Taveras
Julia Taveras Olivia Taveras |job=U.S. Army electronic warfare officer Former part-time security guard |path=Serial Killer Stalker Hacker Abductor |signature=Two distinct signatures: *Leaving cryptograms at the crime scenes *Leaving the Rod of Asclepius at the crime scenes |mo=Slashing and/or stabbing Abduction |victims=4 killed 1 attempted 1 hostage 2 stalked |status=Incarcerated |actor=Emilio Garcia-Sanchez |appearance="Cure" |last= }} Rafael Taveras, 'alias '"The Cure" is a serial killer, stalker, hacker, and one-time abductor who appears in the Season Thirteen episode "Cure". Background When Rafael was a teenager, disciplinary problems led to him being enrolled in a military boarding school. After that, there was a brief stint in the army, followed by a dishonorable discharge for unspecified reasons. While in the army, he received training to become an electronic warfare officer, which is how he acquired his skill set. His parents, Scott and Julia, agreed to a separation a couple of years ago when Scott met Elena Duran and began an affair. That hit Rafael extremely hard. And then he was hit even harder when Scott felt that Julia had become a burden in his life after her cancer diagnosis. Rafael felt extreme resentment towards Scott, believing he should be more sympathetic to Julia. Since Scott didn't want things to get too complicated for her and their health insurance,they decided to remain legally married. At one point, a few months ago, Scott pulled Rafael aside and told him how Julia's illness was taking a toll on him. That enraged Rafael - to him, Scott, who wasn't there for Julia, had a lot of nerve saying that. Rafael felt like killing Scott with his bare hands. Julia went into remission six months ago. Around that time, Scott moved into a townhouse. Two weeks ago, Rafael put into motion a plan to make Scott pay for what he did to the family. However, he knew that if he only killed Scott, the police might suspect him, so he devised an elaborate way to cover up who his true target was. He decided to go after businessmen who also acted as surrogates for Scott and then kill him. His first victim was Marcus Powell, the family services director at the McNab courthouse, where Scott is based. On January 10, 2018, Rafael killed Powell outside of his home in the Georgetown area of Washington DC, and left a cryptogram with the rod of Asclepius on the back of it in his mailbox to act as another forensic countermeasure to throw law enforcement off the true motive of his killings. Believing that police never found his cryptogram he decided to find a way for police to find his messages, which were meant for their eyes only. Cure The episode begins with Rafael murdering Andrew Hirota and tying up Abigail Fuller at the Swilcan Capital Group building. Following the murders, he deletes the photos of Andrew Hirota on his computer and places a phone call to the police while disguising his voice, Modus Operandi Rafael initially targeted businessmen who were surrogates for his father. He would stalk his victims for some time, taking pictures of them in the parking lots of their workplaces and uploading the photos onto a computer at his home. To kill his victims, he would repeatedly slash and stab them with a karambit at night while dressed entirely in black, wearing a ski mask and googles to act as both camouflage, hide his identity, and avoid leaving DNA evidence at the crime scenes. While he killed Powell and attempted to kill his father outside their homes, he killed Andrew Hirota and Douglas Carmichael in or outside their workplaces. His first signature was leaving cryptograms at the crimes scenes that contained letters from the Greek, Latin, Cyrillic, and Korean alphabets. When law enforcement failed to find his first cryptogram (which had the Rod of Asclepius on the back of it), he decided to paint the symbol at the crime scenes using his victims' blood and pose their bodies so they would be facing it and put the cryptograms in the victims' throats after killing them (knowing they would be found during their autopsies). When he killed Elena Duran, he knocked her unconscious, put her in her car, took her to an underground stockroom in a distribution center he used work at, and stabbed her just as he did his previous victims. Knowing the police might suspect him of the attack on his father and Elena's abduction, he placed himself into the trunk of her car after driving to McKenna industrial park to appear as if he was also a victim and that the offender was someone else. Profile No profile was ever given by the BAU since it was that it was a terrorist group Known Victims *2018: **January 10: Marcus Powell **January 28: The attack at the Swilcan Captial Group officer building: ***Andrew Hirota ***Abigail Fuller **January 29: Douglas Carmichael **January 30: Scott Taveras **January 31: Elena Duran **Note: In addition to these victims, Rafael also stalked two other businessmen, but decided to go after his father instead. Notes *Rafael appears to have been based on at least two unsubs from the show's past: **Season Six ***Blake Wells ("Big Sea") - Both are serial killers and abductors who had fathers who left their mothers after they got cancer, had stresors involving their fathers, and targeted and killed victims of both genders through various means (including stabbing). **Season Eight *** John Myers ("The Silencer") - Both were serial killers who targeted people who were surrogates for one of their parents, killed their victims at night, and left messages in two of their victims' mouths. Appearances *Season Thirteen **"Cure" Category:Criminal Minds Characters Category:Criminals Category:Season Thirteen Criminals Category:Serial Killers Category:Hackers Category:Abductors Category:Military Personnel Category:Stalkers Category:Incarcerated Criminals Category:Stubs Category:Narcissists Category:Hostage Takers